INTRODUCTION ] ix

himself first to mathematics, and later to medicine for which
Padua was famous,' and his studies included botany, geology,
astronomy and philosophy, all indispensable for the medical stu—
dent at that time. Pietro Trapolini (1454—1505) a syphiliogra— ,
pher, was lecturing on medicine, and from Pomponazzi (1462—
1525), astronomer, physician and philosopher, he may have
learned to explain human events and vicissitudes by natural
laws rather than by the direct intervention of supernatural in—
fluences, whether good or evil. Pomponazzi, in his treatise
On the Immortality of the Sowl refused to accept the arguments
for individual immortality which 8. Thomas Aquinas had drawn
from Aristotle, argued that Aristotle regards the soul as mortal,
and declared his own opinion that, by reason, the soul cannot be
proved to be mortal or immortal. It is a proof of the greater

 

Marx, Ueber Marc Antonio deWa Torre und IL^onardo da Winct,
Göttingen, 1849, and Cervetto, D: alcuns (Wustrt anatomici 4aliani,
Verona, 1842. In 1909, William Osler writes: '^^The Windsor
L da V drawings must have been made from first class dissections—
whether done by L da V himself or Torre. / Singer!s Studies in
ihe History and Mehod of Science, Oxford, 1917, Plate XXXVI,
reproduces a drawing in the Ashmolean Museum of "^Two figures
dissecting, traditionally said to be Michel Angelo and Antonio dellaæ
Torre'. Besides his eloquent lament for Marcantonio in Syphilis
Book I, we have a Latin poem on the same theme addressed to G. B.
della 'Torre. 2) Giambattista, the astronomer, whose projected
treatise on astronomy was prevented by his death, before 1538;
he inspired Fracastorius to write Homocen£&rica. 38) Raimondo,
died 1541; in that year Fracastorius writes, in a letter, that he is
prostrated by Raimondo's death. 'To him, these three men were
like brothers, and their names occur constantly in his letters, and
poems. A nephew, Francesco, secretary to Bishop Giberti, the
patron of Fracastorius, was a friend and correspondent in later
years.

: Aecording to Massalongo, at Padua, about 1490, was built the
earliest known anatomical theatre under the influence of the Veronese
anatomist and syphiliographer, A. Benedetti, who took the idea
from the Roman Arena at Verona; and a botanical garden was
founded at Padua in 1545. In this Fracastorius must have been
interested. Burton, whose 37 pp. on Medicinal Physic, are inter—
esting as showing the persistence in the 17th cent. of the simples
prescribed by Fracastorius and others, says of the gardens at Padua,
Montpelier, Oxford, etc., ^wherein all exotic plants almost are to
be seen, and liberal allowance made yearly for their better main—
tenance, that younæ students may the sooner be informed in the
knowledge of them'.